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Sir Peregrine Fuller Palmer Acland
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| The man who started it all...
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It was Sir Peregrine Fuller Palmer Acland Bt who called and chaired a meeting at the Egremont Hotel at Williton, Somerset on Wednesday 9th July 1856 at "11 o'clock in the forenoon" with a view to promoting the building of a Railway from Watchet to connect with the expanding railway network.
Sir Peregrine placed an advertisement in the Taunton Courier's edition on 2 July 1856. Headed by a woodblock showing a 2-2-2 locomotive and tender pulling primitive four-wheeled passenger coaches, ran the following:
West Somerset Railway
Notice
A meeting will be held at the Egremont Hotel at Williton, Somerset
on Wednesday 9th July 1856 at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, for the purposes of promoting a Railway
connecting Williton and the West Somerset Mineral District
with the Bristol & Exeter Railway
Sir P.F.P Acland Bt
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In the event, the meeting led to the formation of the first West Somerset Railway Company, and later, to the building and opening of the line from the Bristol and Exeter Railway at Norton Junction, just west of Taunton, to the harbour town of Watchet.
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| More about the man...
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The following notes are courtesy of Lady Gass, Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Somerset:
Sir Peregrine Fuller Palmer Acland Bt (1789 to 1871) married Fanny Leader (1797 to 1844). They lived at Fairfield at Stogursey near Bridgwater, Somerset, just as his ancestors had for hundreds of years before.
He was very active in Somerset, building several village schools and rebuilding St Audries Church at West Quantoxhead. He was the founder and first Chairman of the West Somerset Railway (Watchet to Norton Junction).
His wife and their three children all caught TB. Only his eldest daughter, Isabel (1832 to 1903), survived. As a "thank you" offering, Sir Peregrine built Stogursey School. In 1849, Isabel married Sir Alexander Hood Bt (1819 to 1892) in Stogursey Church. They took the joint name of Acland-Hood and lived at St Audries and Fairfield Estates.
Sir Alexander was a member of the well-known Hood naval family, many of whom became Admirals from the time before Nelson, until the First World War. The Hood Monument on his estate near Glastonbury is a memorial to one of them, as was the battleship "HMS Hood".
Sir Alexander Acland-Hood Bt was Member of Parliament for West Somerset from 1859 to 1868.
His eldest son, also Sir Alexander Acland-Hood Bt, was Member of Parliament for West Somerset from 1892 to 1911 and was a member of Edward VII's Privy Council, and was made Lord St Audries in 1911.
Lady Gass's father, the Hon. John Acland-Hood was the younger son of Lord St Audries. The elder son, Peregrine, became the last Lord St Audries, and lived at Fairfield House until his death. As he died without issue, Lady Gass, as the eldest of the Hon. John Acland-Hood's three daughters, inherited the estate.
Compiled with the invaluable help of Ted Cubitt of Cannington.
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The Minehead Branch 1848-1971
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For serious students of railway history; for local history and local geography enthusiasts and for anyone interested in the story of how a railway came to change rural West Somerset, there is no better recommendation than Ian Coleby's excellent volume "The Minehead Branch 1848-1971" published by Lightmoor Press in 2006. Ian is the Archivist of the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust and the Curator of the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard.
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